Being ill is a very frightening thing, for those afflicted and for the people who love them. So of course we want to find a cure to any ailment as soon as possible. And people will go to great extremes for a cure. Often the "cures" people come up with are a bit on the odd side and not the scientific, medical side. First.... stay off the internet for home remedies. Second.... do not watch 'Grey's Anatomy!' and try and unleash your inner Meredith Grey.
Redditor u/Trillian_42_ wanted some doctors out there to let us know that there is no miracle cure by asking.... Doctors of Reddit, what is the weirdest "cure" your patients have tried to use for their illnesses?
Narrator Says:
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Was asked to see a patient that had obvious advanced breast cancer. Instead of seeing regular doctors, they saw a naturopathic doctor. They convinced the patient to have garlic wrapped in a banana leaf placed into their leg to see if that would help.
Narrator: it didn't. Nysoz
Pain in the Eyes.
I saw someone in the Emergency Department about a month ago who had pain in both eyes after welding without eye protection - this is known as photokeratitis. It doesn't usually last very long and the treatment is predominantly symptom based - artificial tears, anti-inflammatory eye drops, cold compresses, dark room etc...
The man had googled home treatments and found that layering smashed bananas over his eyelids helped.
I guess it's not too dissimilar to a cold compress.
I told him I'd add it to my repertoire. jwms
Urine Therapy?
I'm not a doctor, but I know someone who got really into urine therapy. Meaning she would drink her own urine everyday. She claimed it made her more alert and cured her migraines. MomsSpaghetti589
Yeah, this pee thing was a thing in the village I grew up in, at least back in the days, hopefully.
One of the stories I have is that an aunt of mine put her pee in her sick brother's tea and brought it at the hospital. He drank it. Claimed to have worked because it was "from a virgin girl." dollyish
More than Rubbing....
This is more sad than weird. A women came in with an early stage treatable breast cancer. After talking to a random women in the hospital's waiting room, she decided to refuse medical treatment and instead use essential oils. The women convinced her that by rubbing her breast with essential oils the tumor will disappear and that any form of chemo or surgery will disfigure her while essential oils won't. Fast forward a couple of years, she came in with a stage 4 cancer. It got everywhere it could possibly get without killing her. She got a couple of weeks of palliative care before leaving her teenage children orphans.
Another one is this bee guy. He was basically an alternative medicine healer (he called himself a ''doctor'' while not having any M.D or PhD). This guy uses bee stings as a cure for cancer (all and every kind of cancer). He had different ''protocols'' for every type of cancer : number of sessions, number of stings per session, the areas of the stings ...etc. While at least he didn't encourage his patients to quit treatment, he did expose them to harm. During chemotherapy the immune system will go down.
The bee stings would get infected most of the time and we had a couple of close calls. This dude had convinced all his patients that the brush with death that they had was because of the ''cancer toxins'' leaving their bodies. The cherry on top is that his treatment was not anywhere close to cheap. He was making in a day more than any doctor I know would make in a month.
Edit: added the bee guy's story. NeedToLearnToListen
Oil People.
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My MIL is a huge essential oil fan. I was having an asthma flair up, couldn't find my inhaler, she insisted that if she rubbed this oil on my chest it would go away, I wasn't having it, I had my inhaler somewhere there. She finally yelled at me to stop and try it. I did, I sat there for 10 minutes, wheezing, while she applied it and told me to relax. My wife then found my inhaler and brought it to me, I used it, instantly felt better, and her mom was like, "see!" sixesand7s
Rush to the Hospital.
Not a doctor but had a friend tried to heal a cut on his foot by keeping it moist in saline, wrapping it in bandages, with a sock and shoe squeezed on, under the heater. For days. He ended up getting so sick he had to be rushed to hospital, but literally could have died. definitelymy1account
Fool Proof.
Not a doctor, but 19 year old me decided to try and combat a cold by drinking a bunch of vodka to kill the virus. My plan was pretty fool proof. Jummatron
Raid Bug Spray on his crotch.
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Not a doctor, but back in college I was in a medical class.
The teacher explained that she was a nurse for 20 something years and told us a few funny stories about people who had these weird cures. She then asked us if we ever heard of these cures.
One of the students claimed that a friend of hers had gotten an STD (herpes or something idk), and he tried to cure it by spraying Raid Bug Spray on his crotch.
The teacher burst out laughing while everyone else was disgusted and shocked. KarmaticFox
Below the Skin.
Worked as a medical scribe in the ER. Patient comes in complaining of a skin abscess. Lifts her shirt and taped to her stomach is a piece of white bread. As the nurse pulls it off, out slips what's left of a raw egg. The doctor was speechless and after what felt like an eternity, the patient explains that she read on the internet that eggs have antibacterial properties and that they can cure skin infections. Never really got to how the bread got involved... Doc was nice enough to sympathize and move on quickly it I damn near dropped my laptop. Id_rather_be_eating
Watch the Doc.
Oh, I'm not a doctor...
...but I have an ex who claimed to have health problems. She made me watch this documentary about some guy who would acquire meat and then let it rot for weeks or months, and then eat it raw. Supposedly it cured his health problems. My ex wanted to do the same thing as a treatment for her health problems... which were actually caused by the abuse of narcotics, alcohol, and OTC drugs. dottmatrix
Chickenwire Bob.
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Old guy lived by himself out in the bush. Developed a large chronic ulcer on his shin so wrapped chicken wire around it to protect it from trauma and keep his clothes clean. Unfortunately the granulation tissue from the ulcer base grew over the chicken wire. He just cut around it and added another layer of wire. He came to hospital when it became infected. Needed surgery to debride the ulcer and remove the mesh wire which was completely covered by tissue. We affectionately called him Chickenwire Bob. chilli_colon13
"that snake guy said y"....
I'm a doctor now but this was before, when I was in med school. A woman tried to cure her cancer by starving it... By starving herself. This does not work. Cancer just steals all your energy and nutrients. By the time she accepted medical help she was skin and bones and her tumor just grew right out through her skin, it was awful.
Edit: to anyone saying "my oncologist said x": I'm a family doctor, not an oncologist, and I don't know you or your body. Please listen to your oncologist over me.
To anyone saying: "that snake guy said y": that doesn't sound like a very trustworthy source.
EMERGENCY!
Er doc.
Burns. OMG. Every home remedy. Mayonnaise, toothpaste, honey, syrup. Bee stings are another interesting bunch.
Woman used a baby wipe as a tampon. It remained there for 3 weeks.
I had a gentleman come in because of generalized fatigue. He had his legs wrapped with duct taped to prevent peripheral edema and fluid seeping from his legs. His hemoglobin was 3 and he had a perforated gastric ulcer.
I had a woman with a rash on her groin (clarification: on her labia majora!!!). She attempted to treat with leather tanning solution. There was something else crazy but I cant recall. Too many crazy things at this point. Vibriobactin
"triggers"
My coworkers patient with breast cancer made a 3 inch gash in her thigh and stuffed it with garbanzo beans because she read that it "triggers" the body to fight the cancer. She was actively receiving chemotherapy at the time. She didn't even disclose this to him, he just noticed as he was doing the exam. wolfpack1986
Honey Nut or Plain?
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I had a patient who tried to cure her anemia by eating Cheerios. It didn't work. cooziethegrouch
Thumbtacked!
One of my patients (grown adult) swallowed a thumb tack as a dare but immediately afterward started having chest pain, probably from mucosal damage in his esophagus. So his idea was to try to take a self made stack of maybe 7or 8 penny size magnets which he stuck down his throat to try to pull the thumbtack back out and ended up accidentally swallowing that too. I consulted a gastroenterologist and I could hear his facepalm on the other end of the phone. LamarcusAldridge24
It's NOT a popsicle.
Not a doctor but EMS. For a while heroin got really big in my city and people were dropping like flies. Some How, some way, a rumor got passed around that inserting popsicles in peoples rectums would bring them out of an overdose. They had gotten this down to a science s/ they'd use red white and boom pops to match the skin color with the depth. I.e. if the person was blue, they'd insert it up to the blue part of the popsicle. For a solid 2-3 months we'd find people out cold, pants around there ankles and popsicle sticks sticking out of their bums. AmongstTheExpanse
Stop Blogging!
Not a doctor obviously, but a two time cancer patient.
The amount of people who tried to convince me that changing my bodies pH by either ingesting large amounts of baking soda (base) or lemon juice/cider vinegar (acid) was abnormally high.
Everyone had a blog to share claiming this huge secret "my doctor wouldn't want me to know" allegedly. Interestingly they couldn't even get it straight which way the pH needed to go. scott60561
Oh the Herbals....
I shouldn't even have been told about this, but my friend's dad is a GP. He once had a family come in complaining that they all shared the same symptoms, even their newborn child.
It turned out that the mother had chlamydia, which she passed to her child during birth, and the rest of the family ate her placenta and everyone contracted it.
He told them this and recommended a treatment, to which they responded, "No, thank you. We wanted to know what was wrong, but we've got herbal remedies for this…" _cosmicomics_
In the Waiting Room...
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Not to me but in the waiting room of the clinic.
This guy walks out into the waiting room and recognizes my dad (they are distant cousins but I didn't know him) and he tells my dad that while jumping off rocks into the local river, he busted his shin open on another rock underwater.
So his remedy. Pour alcohol on it and throw a match on the gash to cauterize it. RegularBrick80
George Takei's Halloween Costume Contest 2019
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
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What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
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Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
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Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...
The old wives' tales.
They are the stories of legend.
I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.
Where did they originate?
WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!
You don't hear about them as much anymore.
It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.
But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.
Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:
"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"
"Wait an hour to swim after eating."
What a crock!
So many summer hours wasted.
I want revenge for that one.
Say Nothing
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"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."
LonelyMail5115
"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."
I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA
Say Something
"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."
Severe_Airport1426
"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."
crappycurtains
"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."
AlbinoShavedGorilla
Body Temps
"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."
chriseo22
"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."
"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."
apocalypticradish
Arms Down
"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."
Fatmouse84
10 Years Actually
Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine
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"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."
Gecko-911
I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.
This tale is haunting.
High/Low
Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace
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"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."
LeastFormal9366
"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."
IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI
The Cursed
"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."
"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."
SmoreOfBabylon
Stay In
"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."
"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."
worldbound0514
Dreams and Facts
"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."
"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."
mattshonestreddit
"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."
Darthdemented
Cracked
Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office
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"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."
Choice-Grapefruit-44
"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."
MacyTmcterry
I love my knuckles.
Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.